For those arriving from the Land of the Verses of the Twits....The real analysis/almost-live coverage is here...

And did anybody seriously think that Paddy the K, what with all his Trojan Horse 1A's etcetera, etcetera, would lose to.....Jordan Bateman et al?

And finally, while everybody is wondering where Ms. Clark will run...Me, I can't help but wonder, especially if there really are defections, if a spot will suddenly open up for, say.... this guy.

Update: Sunday afternoon, between the end of tap dance class and the start of C.'s Birthday/HathFrancoWay Party, I snuck down to Trout Lake, sans guitar, and took the Whack-A-Doodle for a bracing walk in the grey and the slush...Interestingly, the Murders of Crows were at least an order of magnitude larger, not to mention way, way more agitated and vocal with the 'Nevermores!' than usual....Hmmmmmmm....I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with this....Right?

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Chad Skelton, in the VSun, has done some solid number crunching of where CClark and KFalcon's 'support' came from regionally.

It's actually excellent stuff and, in my opinion, it means way, way more than almost all of the many hills of substance-challenged puffed-up pro-punditry beans that have poked their heads up out of the Lotuslandian snow this morning.

Interestingly, Ms. Clark beat Mr. Falcon like a proverbial gong in 32 of 34 provincial ridings currently held by The Dippers.

So.

Does that mean that Ms. Clark will make it possible for PK and his High Flyers to put an even heavier boot....errrrrr....get a foothold on the soft underbelly of centrists who lean ever so slightly left?

Or.

Does it mean that, the FedCons will take their big money backers and go home for real?

And, despite a 'progressive' push to harden Mr. Abbott's edge, that assessment has pretty much held, I think.

I also think Abbott is the best nag of a bad bunch of low-end claimers that are still in the race as they, and their whip-wielding jockeys, finally pass the Old Oak Tree and head for home.

Which is precisely why I do not want him to win.

****

What the heckfire am I talking about this time?

Well.....

If Abbott wins, I think the coalition that is the farce that is the BC Liberal party will hold.

Because the Redmeat Yahoos like John Reynolds will keep quiet and won't head back to ConVille like they just might if the FedCon Clowns's First-Choice, Ms. Clark, wins.

And if the man who allegedly adores both Maggie Thatcher AND Ronald Reagan, Kevin Falcon, wins?

Well, it will be a lot of short-term Scott Walker-type pain for those who don't have massive HST exemptions and big yachts as he, the architect of a passel of massively overpriced P3's to come that could bankrupt us forever, will finally be able to start dressing in Dame Maggie drag....24/7.....without fear of censure or disfavour.

Which, of course, means that the voters just might wake-up for real, which would doom the BC Lib Party to dustbin forever, even without the FedCon hive-off that a FedLibClown win might very likely precipitate

All of which really means, in my opinion at least, that the worst must win if we, the people of British Columbia, are to keep from really losing in the end.

The real wrinkle in how things would really be run, of course, is likely to be found in the actual racing form that MSM in this province never prefers to the people....Which is that Mr. Abbott may actually be the LibClownCrowd's '1A' Horse.

And speaking of 'Claiming Horses of Equal Value'.....Isn't it interesting how the Aquilini's spread their money around pretty evenly to pretty much everybody....Equally.

Update: Les Leyne, in the VT-C puts the potential hive-off by Ms. Clark in a slightly different, more Socred-O-Centric/Old Used Car Salesmannish Boy, sort of way....

5:15pm Sat....Pro-Pundit Round-The-Dial Round-Up....The Dean, The Sportswriter, and the Surrey Now Bumbler are all tentatively/weasly calling it for Paddy the K's horse....

5:30pm Sat....Sean Holman is also making the tentative CClark call....Also notes that she was calling Liberal MLA's last night which suggests that her camp has hard numbers....Wonder if there was any arm-twisting going on for post 'convention' positive comments?

5:45pm Sat....Oh crap....The MaceMan, over on the Globe Live-Chat is actually agreeing with the post above...If the convention wisdom follows up on the everything is alright with George, and he wins, we are doomed...

5:55pm Sat...Amazing how little news there actually is to report on this thing despite the fact that there are about a billion proMedia folks all over the thing....Best stuff I've seen so far is Robert Matas' coverage of the TwitVerse...Sean Holman does have a live chat going that is starting to heat up...

5:58pmSat...The AstroTurf King, Jordan Bateman, is on with the Watercarrier and Jill Bennett droppin' his G's and makin' a play for his own leadership campaign down the road...Says PIN's were an issue, and are an issue, but aren't actually really an issue, and we're confident, blah, blah, blah, blah...no legal challenge comin' cause we're all BCLiberals now....

6:01pmSat...KevinKrueger, through gritted teeth is now supportive of Christy...Have the numbers been telegraphed already behind the curtain...

6:03pmSat...Robert Matas, covering the TwitVerse at G&MLiveBlog notes that Mike the Cookie Monster DeJong enters the hall and nobody notices...

6:05pmSat....Actually signs and T-Shirts in the hall now...The faux nature of the 'convention' is palpable...

6:07pmSat....Hey! Harry! It's snowin'!

6:10pmSat...CBC/BC LiveBlog is lamer-than-lame, not even launching....VaughnPalmer is really calling it for CClark now....Says it's his 'sense'....I think he's been leaked numbers....

6:12pmSat....Just gotta say it, because it's been bugging for me a long, long time....Back when the Big Green Bus helped Smilin' Sammy win CClark said, on 'NW....'You can't steal an election in a democracy.'....Here we go...

6:20pm....So much for the CClark slam-dunk 37% first ballot....It will have to go three rounds....Not enough on the deJong table to get anybody over the hump on the 2nd....Finally GMason says they aleady knows who won...

6:22pm...Also means, I think, that there aren't enough votes to keep GAbbott on after the 2nd ballot...

6:25pm...Most importantly....All this means that proPundits were bamboozled by the 'insiders' running the CClark campaign...

6:30pm...The hive will now be splitting off, regardless.....The best man or woman will win....For the Dippers!

6:40pm....Why the heck is the LibBrainTrust waiting so long?....Arm twisting behind the scenes?..

6:45pm....Clark wins easily...Looks to me like the Prog-Rockin' insiders behind the scenes had a whole lotta 'faux GAbbott 'firsts' in their backpocket from the start....

6:50pm....Over at Sean Holman's, Bill Tieleman notes that Patrick Kinsella is back in charge all over again!....Great comment there also from member of the citizenry who asks...Will Pam Martin be the new PAB Uber-Boss?

6:51pm...Guess this means that Alex T's 'source' will keep on keepin' on....Allegedly?...

Which is that the past week's much-trumpeted exoneration of any and all BC Liberals with a pulse by CTVBellGlobeTSNRDICHUMMUCHBatonLabattMedia in the RailGate affair was based on cherry-picked info that the prosecution provided, it would appear, to said media outlet BEFORE Wednesday's court hearing.

All of which means that, if you have been paying attention, you know that the Headline --Wurlitzering and endless breathless promos that ran above, and swirled around, Mark Hume and Jim Beatty's reverse-hit pieces that instantly wormed their way into every single Lotuslandian proMedia nook-and-cranny were pure unadulterated codswallop.

But, regardless, when all the walling-off of our local LINO's was done, the prosecutors and the hitmen still had to leave one of their own outside in the cold.

That old QuidProQuo that was apparently/allegedly/but not really being dangled in front of everyone's eyes for money and/or favours and/or bid cover-based back-scratch-fever paybacks before it was/was not pulled off the table by someone who may or may not have been a minister of the crown and/or who may or may not have been having dinner with someone who may or may not have been an executive for a company that was clearly NOT involved with another group that the good Mr. Clark may or may not have been working with to get ahold of said Spur.

Or some such crazy mixed-up thing that the prosecution refused to release any further information/wiretap transcripts about when they got together with Mess'rs Beatty and Hume of the CTVGlobeEverythingElse Empire recently.

Which, weirdly enough, brings us to a very different company all together.

A very fine company from Vegas with a local BC Liberal-connected investor called 'Paragon'.

Guess those LINO-aligned folks only half-hiding behind the curtains learned their lesson on that one, eh?

****

What the heckfire am I talking about?

Well, despite Mr. David Podmore's babbling on about the overwhelming number of competitive bids for the roof-assisted reverse land-jack last week on CBC Radio (with, I'm sad to say, a decidedly passive and over-produced Katherine Gretzinger), the folks behind the curtain made darned sure that Paragon's was the only bid with an inside track/gambling license-in-hand when the game was suddenly, and secretively, changed from housing/retail to hotel rooms and money launder.....errrrr..... gambling.

Ian Reid, who might have more inside information than even T. Richard Turner himself on the genesis of the CasinoIndustrialComplex, has that story.

And despite his sharpness and snark, even Mike Howell of the VanCourier has bought the line that we need the CasinoIndustrialComplex to justify/pay for the new Devil's Horns Hat being placed atop the former Marshmallow and NOT the other way around (again, follow Mr. Reid's timeline in his post noted above and you'll get what I'm talkin' about)

And, finally, just to prove that I really have been paying attention while on hiatus....Has anyone else noticed how well-timed NW's upcoming PinkShirt day is just in front of QueenChristy's potential coronation to come....Man, her riders sure know how beat back the (real) competition and stretch even the longest of noses at the wire...

Please note....All the info for this wee bit of handicapping comes straight from the digital back issues of the racing form/backstage bible that can be found hidden beneath the saddles of every political paddock in British Columbia, Public Eye Online.

And all joking aside, why isn't anybody in the proMedia digging into who is really running (and financially backing) every single one of both major party's leadership candidates?....You think stuff like this doesn't matter?....If so, you are very, verywrong.....OK?

Sunday, February 06, 2011

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In one of the biggest digital publishing deals in recent memory, AOL has agreed to pay $315 million for the Huffington Post, the pioneering web-only newspaper co-founded by Arianna Huffington.

The deal is AOL CEO Tim Armstrong's latest and boldest attempt to transform the declining company from one that helped millions of people get onto the internet through dial-up connections to one that informs and entertains them in a broadband world, or as he called it, a "new American media company."....

OK.

Now I get it.....

The way for new media moguls to really go big is to pay their writers even less than nothing.

And make google-eyes at Dinosaurs with cash-flow problems who can't quite figure out how to upload Kardashian B-Shots and Lohanamanian N-Slips hand-over-fist on their own.

It just may be the end of the (western) world as we know it.

Although.

If one must go out whilst amusing oneself to death one could do a whole lot worse than, say, this.

Here's something interesting....The guy who ran the Cafe Wha? at the time, Manny Roth, is Diamond Dave's uncle...The first time he heard him Mr. Roth thought the kid 'didn't have a prayer' of making it...